The Jury Day done, all eyes now on Awards Night on 29 November 2018

The banquet at 18.99 Latitude in Mumbai where over 900+ samples were on display was a sight of the jury members touching, feeling, scratching, and many a time marvelling at the excellence of the print quality.

“Following the PrintWeek India Jury Day, we are just one step closer to finding out who the winners will be,” said Ramu Ramanathan, editor of PrintWeek India.  The gala Awards Night will be held on Thursday, 29 November 2018 at St Regis in Mumbai, and where the winners will receive the prestigious PrintWeek India Awards 2018 Prisms, one which signifies excellence in print.

This year’s PrintWeek India Awards received 240 entries from 104 companies, and though the numbers were a tad lower than the previous edition, the quality was never in doubt. There were 17 Awards in the Quality category and seven in the Performance. This edition of PrintWeek India saw the introduction of a new category, Packaging Converter of the Year (Flexible).

“It’s been an amazing experience for me, doing it for close to seven years now. I think, being here and evaluating the ensemble of the print samples received for the PrintWeek India Awards, is like really seeing what the future of printing is,” said Soma Roy, associate manager packaging quality at Marico.

Unnati Joseph, Kunal Anand, Aiyana Gunjan, Noel D'cunha and Janak Bhatt (l to r)

Amit Saurkar, head for packaging development at MTR Foods, who travelled all the way from Bengaluru, has been another veteran at the PrintWeek India Awards Jury Day. “Judging the samples is both very interesting and challenging at the same time. Some of the packaging samples which I evaluated, the difference has been very fine. I was very impressed not only with the quality of the flexible packaging samples, but across the other categories.”

After the jury duties, the members assembled for a short tête-à-tête, PrintWeek India calling it the “Inner Circle” discussion. It was an opportunity for the jury members coming from different backgrounds in print and designing to interact and understand each others works.

Janak Bhatt, CEO and creative director at Prestine Ideas, a first-timer at the PrintWeek India Jury Day, said the PrintWeek India Awards and the Inner Circle discussion which followed was a great format. “It was truly enriching. With so many samples laid out, I could see some distinct trends emerge. In the photo album, going big is better was certainly the theme.” He added, “We need the Inner Circle kind of a watch, to push us and help embrace the industry. I think PrintWeek India is doing a fantastic job.”

PrintWeek India Awards 2018 has received support from print industry leaders – Bhumi World, Bobst India, Canon India, Heidelberg India, Mark Fine Printers, Megabound, Orange-O-tec, Pidilite Industries, Sangeeta Poly Pack, Sona Papers, TechNova, Toyo Inks, and Welbound.